win 98 SE and linksys etherfast 10/100 problems

Hello,
I just purchased two linksys 10/100 etherfast nics and I am having a problem with win 98 SE.
My computer is a 333mhz cyrix, and as soon as I booted the computer after putting the card in the slot the computer seemed to be acting very slow. Also the computer would take about 10 minutes to boot up after installing the drivers. I think the card is configured properly but when I ping my windows system,from the linux the lights on the nic blink, but I do not get a response. I am using crossover cable to connect the two nodes .Everything looks ok in control panel but when I click on properties for the nic card it takes a while for them to come up.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank You